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Are the New York Knicks New Alternative Jerseys Ugly or Awesome?

December 14th, 2012 at 8:00 AM By Matt Agne

The New York Knicks are one of the oldest teams in the NBA. They are a traditional organization and sometimes that makes them less appealing to the younger generations. Even with their uniforms they've always kept it simple. They've always had a home and away jersey. It's never gone further than that. Times have changed. The Knicks have finally designed an alternative jersey and it's a look a blind man could see. The question is, is it a hit or a miss?

An alternate jersey is a uniform that a sports team may wear in games instead of its home or away outfit. They are most often used when the colors of two competing teams are too similar to distinguish between without much effort.

Some teams use throwback uniforms based on designs the team used in the past as their third-choice jersey. Alternative uniforms are used in all four North American major professional sports leagues in the United States.

Some will love these Knicks jerseys and some will hate them. Do they remind you of a bottle of Fanta? Yes a bit. They probably would be easier on the eyes if the numbers were solid blue but clearly when the Knicks decided to jump into the alternative jersey game they joined the everything-is-the-same-color trend. Those types of jerseys are all the rage right now.

Maybe the most important question is how did the Knicks end up with an alternative uniform that looks like a Syracuse Orangemen jersey, just with more orange? Well a person, or really a small group, chose this design on purpose. Clearly they wanted to catch people's eyes and didn't want to beat around the bush.

However, it didn't stop there. The design was then reviewed by several members of Knicks personnel. Tweaks and changes were made. They nit-picked, complained, yelled and argued. When it was done the result was a sea of orange.

Until now, the only alternative uniform the Knicks used was a green one that looked far too close to those of their rival Boston Celtics. However, a video game website called Kotaku.com reports that will all end on Christmas when the Knicks face the Los Angeles Lakers.

The evidence came from NBA2k13, which leaked other uniform changes and alternative jerseys as well. However, it didn't seem real until a Knicks fan named Johnathan Gosper sent a message to Alan Hahn's Twitter account. This will be the first time in franchise history that the Knicks wear jerseys that are primarily orange.

Traditional fans will hate the orange uniforms. There's just no pleasing everyone. However, it's already been proven to work. Syracuse, the University of Texas and the Phoenix Suns all have orange uniforms. That's not the question. The question is if these jerseys are done properly or if they're an eyesore?

It will be interesting to see if the Knicks use these at all again during the season or if it's a one-time only deal for these uniforms. The NBA will only allow teams to wear these alternate uniforms twice at home. They can schedule several away games to show off the new design.

Love them or hate them it appears the orange uniforms are for real. They probably could have looked nicer with a few more tweaks but it is absolutely about time the Knicks organization gave their fans an orange alternative to the white and blue traditional uniforms.

Fans can already be seen sporting the all orange jerseys throughout Madison Square Garden. Word spreads fast and bootleggers work even faster. However, while Knicks fans are hoping to get Amare Stoudemire back on the court as a Christmas present, most never thought they'd see him return wearing all orange.